Sunday, September 21, 2014

NAU NEGRA playing with received ideas.

NAU NEGRA is a graphic novel with a touch of burlesque, based on
real, documented events from the beginning of the 17th
century Japan involving European ships, that plays with received
ideas about the time and place, about people, Japanese and European,
mostly Portuguese gentry, traders and sailors. Here are some received
ideas I had to shake while researching for this type of story.

The
authority of the captain was unquestionable, on board? No, as you
will see by the troubles of His Excellency.

Japan,
by this time, was a closed country and that was what made the fortune
of the Portuguese traders from Macau? This is somewhat
contradictory and is an idea built up on events of almost one
century, during which Macau would grow and make and lose several
fortunes, until finally the Shogun closed the doors of Japan to the
Portuguese. But, during that period and beyond, there would be plenty
of Japanese sailors on regulated or illegal trade all over the seas
of the Orient.

The
Portuguese ships were old-fashioned carracks? One – just one
every year – large black ship, heir in design to the carrack, would
make the trip auctioned by the Crown. But with time those naus
evolved into slightly more modern shapes, until the last one, the
ship of this story, was considered obsolete. The first Portuguese to
arrive to Japan probably shipwrecked in a junk, either bought, rented
or taken by force. Junks and a mixed type, called lorcha, never
stopped being used. English also used junks. Probably the Dutch stuck
to the ships of their own Company. The black ship was replaced by
small vessels called galeotas, built in India in large quantities.

You
may suppose that Japanese converts, when away from Japan, were a meek
and self-effaced flock, until they disappeared without a trace,
right? Nothing could be more distant from the truth. Contemporary
accounts describe how Japanese volunteered for risky missions or were
quick at using their swords on their own account. Forbidden to return
to Japan they certainly mixed with local populations.

European
priests would consider their Japanese converts as equals? Some
would put Japanese and Chinese one level over other peoples, but I
have no illusions that in the end prejudice, including sometimes the
belief in superiority of “blood”, would prevail... however, they
would be irritated by Japanese belief in their own superiority, and
would resent lessons of good behavior.

European
priests were advised to wash more frequently? Yes, they were.
Japanese hygienic habits made the presence of the smelly barbarians
difficult to bear. Can you imagine the sensation, when a big ship
unloaded its human population after months on board?

Except
for the Jesuits who, we have been told, were good at astronomy and
similar curiosities, European priests would have what we imagine as a
“medieval” frame of mind? In reality, in the texts I read,
they sound sometimes as if they could be seating across the table
speaking about the facts of everyday life and didn't differ much from
my neighbors... until they start speaking about relics of saints and
martyrdom. There we enter another dimension. This was the great
obsession of those times, and it was a very cruel and bloody
obsession. As for the astronomy thing, yes, Jesuits would nurture
curious, practical minds and some tolerance of costumes in the East,
but, although a little advanced for the time, that was not a rule.

Slaves
were subject to unimaginable abuse, tortured, had their ears cut,
would be killed for nothing? Yes, they were. They could be
sacrificed for their masters, and that's exactly what happens in the
story. Cutting the ears was an old legal punishment. But, on the
other hand, in desperate situations slaves took up arms and saved the
day. They fought for Malacca and saved Macau, being freed in
consequence. Slaves would carry their masters weapons and were
commonly employed in India as bodyguards or swordsmen of choice.

Portuguese
ships were, in competition with Dutch and English ships, ridiculously
slow? One Portuguese Commander, when persecuting them, even
compared his own flagship to a well known landmark and watering spot
on the Indian coast. “But they won't escape,” he added in the
same letter. The Black Ship surely was slowwwwwwww...

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“Fernando Relvas, whose work emerged with the 25th April (1974), is the one who clearly accomplishes and typifies the modern Portuguese comics, the more influential and admired by the next generations, the one whose universe, while being very personal, take approaches and open ways that, with the necessary differences, are now being followed and opened by others.” in “Das Conferências do Casino à Filosofia de Ponta”, an historical panorama of Portuguese comics (exhibit Lisboa / Bruxelles 2000)

ASK A PALMYRA (CCB Publishing, 2013)

blog URSO DO RELVAS

blog NAU NEGRA, THE BLACK SHIP FILES

Click on the images bellow to see some of my drawings, stories and projects.